Jim Ross Addresses How He Thinks Talents in WWE Are Overproduced, How Wrestlers in AEW Are Allowed to Create Their Own Promos

– The Sports Media podcast with Richard Deitsch recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross. Ross discussed working in AEW, what AEW was doing differently than WWE, WWE being overproduced, and spontaneity for announcing. Below are some highlights.

Jim Ross on his belief that Superstars in WWE are overproduced: “I think their issue may be — and of course, you know anytime I give my opinion, it isn’t arts and flowers regarding my old team that I’m being bitter and caustic. So, let that record be known. I think sometimes they over-produce. Then, they take away, or maybe reduce might be a better word, restrict might be a better word, I don’t know, the talents’ own creativity. Nobody knows themselves better than they do. So, I just broke about all of Vince’s rules. I just used three about different pronouns. But that’s the deal. Sometimes talents lose hope or confidence that they do have a feel for their own character, their own personality because it’s obvious over the annals of time — in recent years, Attitude Era years, the Hogan Era years, all this other stuff, the guys who were over the most were seemingly natural extensions of their own personality. And I think in WWE sometimes, the natural extension of personalities are not as freely exhibited as they should be. In AEW, we have no writers. So, there’s nobody to influence promos for example. There’s no one to — ‘Here’s my copy. Let me see what you’re going to say. Let me vet your promo.’ Bull****. Come one. It’s pro wrestling. Don’t overthink this thing, man. You hire people because they’re alpha males — alpha personalities, or I should say they’re aggressive or outgoing. They want to perform. Well, give them the opportunity to do that. Let’s see what creativity they have. If they squeeze out of them, sometimes, it doesn’t grow back real well.”

Jim Ross on how AEW handles talent’s promos and characters: “So, I think that the thing in AEW right now is there’s direction. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not the rudder of the ship. There’s direction. There’s topics, but you get bullet points of things that they would like for you to include in your promo and work it in organically and naturally in a conversation form. And I think we’ve had some — Cody’s promo work has been excellent. And you know he collects his thoughts, jots his notes down, and has a road map of where he wants to go. Chris Jericho, same way. I saw PAC do an interview the other day with Jim Decker. And he was excellent. And I didn’t realize how good he could be, and there was no writer in sight. He knew the bullet points. He knew how he felt realistic. He felt as PAC in that character, and that’s what he relayed. And it works. So, I think that’s one of the big things.”

Ross on how the lack of writers can be a blessing and a curse: “The lack of writers can be a blessing and a curse. I get all that. And I’m not saying all writers are bad, by any stretch. But when you’re inundated with creative input from people that perceive your character and understand where this thing should go, in order to do that, they have to have extensive knowledge and be an ongoing student of the game. I think we have that environment in AEW. But I’m not sure that it exists to that description in WWE these days.”

Jim Ross on Chris Jericho’s promos and not knowing : “I have no earthly idea what he’s going to say. None. Now, I know where we’re heading. It doesn’t take Einstein to figure out what direction we’re traveling. We know we’re heading to a showdown at some point — probably February, common sense, hello. I’m not giving anything away here. But the next big pay-per-view’s in February. But if I were booking this thing, as a lot of guys like to say now, I would certainly like to see Moxley and Jericho for the title. So, if we’re heading that direction, we know we’re going North, East, West, South, whatever. But we don’t know maybe the vehicle we’re traveling in. We might not know the routing we’re taking today. And so, that’s the great thing about this whole deal. I said that for years about when Lawler and I worked together all those years in WWE. I would venture to say that probably 80 percent of the time, we didn’t know the refined finish of any match. And we’d find out here and there or yon, or during the day, or when someone was talking or whatever. Or someone would come up to ask Lawler a question about a spot or something. But we never wanted that information because it did affect your spontaneity. It did affect your presentation. You’re gonna be getting great effort from us. We’re gonna give you the passion if it’s there. But I can’t be singing country music to rap songs. We all got to get on the same page here. So, you make your great music, and I’ll try to give you a lyric that’s commensurate to what we’re hearing, or seeing more specifically.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit the Sports Media podcast, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.